Writing Online; Tips for Newbies - Part 1

Been There, Done That

I've been writing online since the earliest days, I've experienced just about everything, from Writing Ponzis to Comment Trolls.

I've been lucky in that I've had particular experiences in Real Life which gives a certain confidence.

I admit, if I hadn't had these R.L. experiences, that RL confirmation, I might have gotten discouraged and never written anything beyond a shopping list.

Define Writing

If you want to write, go ahead. Soon enough you will find where your strengths and weaknesses are.

Read everything you can. Read for technique, read for the tricks, Expose yourself to different styles. What you are going for is the 'behind the keyboard' data. Why certain words are used, what makes an article boring or trite, what makes one hold you to the last word.

In a short story every word has to justify its place. You don't repeat yourself. When you're writing political rhetoric you will adopt slogans and terminologies you repeat to effect opinions.

In factual pieces you may supply references every other sentence or quotes. You may find that you do better writing about what is trending then supplying your own topic.

Eventually you'll find your voice and your niche.

Grammar, Spelling, And Other Nuts & Bolts

A basic technique is to write as it comes. Just write. When you've finished do the housekeeping.Check your spelling, grammar, read the article out loud so you can pick up the errors.

When you post it, see how it looks. Sometimes the paragraphs run together so it's one blob. Other times you have peculiar breaks with one word on a line or too much space between paragraphs.

Try to make it as neat and as clear as possible. Know that people don't like to read blobs of information and that short choppy sentences are good for effect but you can't write a whole article with them.

Copyright is Key

When you write something, unless you have been hired to write it and paid for it, the copyright remains with you.

There are writing sites which will pay you $15.00 for an article. That means they have bought it, just as if they paid you for a cream pie. You can't object if they toss that pie at someone, feed it to their dog, or wear it as a hat. You sold them that pie.

There are other sites which play 'cute'. They have you compete for that $15.00. They toss up a topic, a bunch of people research and write, and then they select one. If that is not you, you have worked for nothing.

There are sites which claim to pay ever so much more than the others, but don't pay at all. Further, they steal your work and lock you out of the site. Your work is earning money, you are getting nothing.

Before you join any site, check their Terms of Service. This is vital. Never click "I Agree" at any time in your life, unless you have read the fine print. If you see anything in that TOS which makes you puzzle about your ownership of your work, Do Not Join that Site.

Most sites want Original Work. To protect yourself, create a Blog, post your work there first. Keep your Blog private. It is your article Bank. After you've examined it on your Blog, then post it to the writing site. In this way, you have proof you posted on the Blog first, and if they try to capture your work and not pay you, publish your Blog and network it like crazy.

To test your copyright, try to delete a published article. Some sites make you go through the procedure more than once, but do let you delete. Others will prevent you from doing so. If you are prevented from deleting your work, that means the site has captured your copyright. Cease to submit articles to that site, go to your Blog, and network the article.

Remember, if you own it, you can delete it. If you can't delete it, you don't own it.

Networking

Online Writing Sites give you a place to publish your work. It is up to you to do the marketing.

This means the site does nothing to promote your article. All promotion must come from you.

You have to join the various networking sites, put in a pile of tags to lure Search Engines. And You never have enough tags.

You join all the Networking sites you can using different Nicknames. Many have rules against 'self-spamming'.

This means if You wrote an article and You try to put it on Reddit, all the Trolls, (and Reddit is the Capital of Trollkingdom) will downvote immediately. (Reddit Trolls will always downvote but this removes some of their 'ammunition')

As I said in the second sentence; the Site Does Nothing.It is Up To You to Market your work. The Upside to this is when you post on a site that steals your copyright.

As the site does not let you remove your article, you leave it.And You Network the item you posted on your Blog.You Network that item to every site on the 'Net. You don't touch the item on the Rip Off Site.It should get NO Traffic.

On the non-rip off sites, as soon as an article is published, start promoting it everywhere you can. Shetoldme and Redgage are two places where you can be paid for your submissions. Join them.

Without hits you won't make any money. You could have posted the winners and final scores of every match of the World Cup a month before it began, but if you didn't network that article, it would be as private as writing the winners on a piece of paper and pushing it under your fridge.

Adsense

On this site, as well as others, you must join Adsense to get paid. Some sites, such as Triond give a double payment, their own and Adsense. Others are Adsense alone.

Some pay for hits, and a few sites only pay for clicks.

For example, Snipsly only pays if someone clicks on an Ad. Hubpages pays if some one views your article. Hence Hubpages pays by hits, and that's the method you want.

Beware of Shills!

A Shill is a person who 'pimps' for a writing site. Some know what they are doing. Many do NOT. Those who know are virtually hired by the Site to rope in suckers. They are in the 'elite' group who are ALWAYS paid.

When you see all sorts of comments and PMs "Join Ritesite! They pay more than anyone else!" (and you see the URL {with their referral number}) be a bit chary. Why are they promoting the site?

When you read complaints from those who were not paid, the Shill will dismiss them..."You Broke the Rules!" the Shill will proclaim. "I've been paid 5 Times!!"

Don't read that sentence as the Complainer being the one in wrong, read it as a Shill who is fighting to keep his pennies, even at your expense.

People who 'defend' writing sites are being PAID to do so.

If you join that Site, you may be paid once, but it is very likely you too will be ripped off.

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